Americans are
more concerned about possibly falling victim to a crime made possible by the
internet than any one “conventional” crime, a recent poll has shown.
As many as
67% of adult Americans are anxious, be it frequently or occasionally, about
“having their personal, credit card or financial information stolen by computer
hackers”, according to the annual Crime poll conducted by Gallup. Fear of identity theft came in a
close second at 66%.
Meanwhile,
the next worst-feared crime – having one’s car stolen or broken into – came in
a distant third in the 13-item worry list, raising concern on the part of 38%
of a random sample of 1,028 respondents queried between October 5–11.
Indeed, Gallup
itself was quick to note that “since 2009, Americans’ anxiety about identity
theft has consistently topped their fears about other crimes by at least 19
percentage points”.
It was in
that year that Gallup began to canvass Americans’ sentiments on identity theft,
with the concerns about this crime consistently between 66-70% ever since. The
question regarding hackers stealing personal information was added to the
survey this year, “though prior surveys included questions on narrower
cybercrime-related issues”.
The high
level of fear of cybercrime dovetails with the self-reported rates of
victimization, as 25% of the respondents reported that their personal
information or that of their household member has been stolen by hackers over
the past 12 months. When it comes to identity theft, the same was true for 16%
of those asked.
These
findings also echo those of ESET’s own research, which revealed that Americans believe
“criminal hacking into computer systems” is now a top risk to their health,
safety and prosperity.
In a survey
conducted this summer, ESET researchers Stephen Cobb and Lysa Myers found that
US adults rated criminal hacking as more of a risk than other significant
hazards, including climate change, nuclear power, and hazardous waste.
Yet again,
reports of a conventional form of crime, “money or property was stolen from you
or another member of your household”, only came in third on 12 percent.
The FBI’s
Internet Crime Complaint Center reported an average of 280,000 complaints a
year from 2000-2016, Gallup noted.
The poll was
conducted in the wake of a massive data breach at US credit checking company Equifax, which occurred from May through July 2017 but didn’t
make headlines until Equifax’s confirmation of the incident on September 7.
This breach,
which saw hackers make off with the data of 143 million people, was itself
preceded by reports of a rash of other high-profile data breaches in recent
years.
The hacking
of infidelity site Ashley Madison – while not the largest, it was unprecedented
given the nature of the site’s service – affected 37 million people. The list
of US-based businesses to have suffered major data breaches in recent years
includes home improvement retailer Home Depot in 2014 and retail giant Target in late 2013.
Arguably,
Yahoo has eclipsed them all, having suffered from two massive breaches in recent years, including one in 2013
that turned out last month to have affected all three billion user accounts on the service.
All told, the
prevalence of large-scale security incidents – and the extensive media coverage
thereof – are seen as having contributed to the Americans’ worry of cybercrime.